A STRATFORD finance expert claims last week’s pension strike should be a wake-up call to private sector staff.

According to Chris Payton, who is a senior consultant at Leigh Graham Financial Planning, says the focus on the planned changes to the age of retirement, employee contributions and pension values for the public sector is detracting from a bigger issue.

“The stories have all been on how unfair public sector workers believe the planned changes will be,” he said. “In fact what we should be more concerned about is how badly off those of us not working in the public sector could be if we don’t get our retirement planning in order.

“The public sector pension schemes are excellent and this is the reason why the strikes occurred because they are such a valuable benefit to members. Even with the planned changes, the public sector have a lot to be thankful for compared to private sector schemes. It is very difficult to replicate that level of provision in the private sector. It is believed that a private sector worker would need to pay between 15 per cent and 40 per cent to get equivalent benefits.”